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STEaM Rising

The challenge: build a remote-controlled robot that can stack storage totes, place a large recycling bin on top, and grapple with plastic pool noodles that the opposition is scattering across the competition floor.

Why do we humans want to make things? What is it that drives us to create? Why do we build or paint or design something that is either beautiful or something that will make our lives better- or both? What do “Makers” know and do that could benefit us all? In this season of gift seeking and giving, I’d like to encourage you to join theMaker Movement.

More students in far flung rural districts and in urban schools serving disadvantaged communities are getting a chance to gain hands-on experience building tech skills, teamwork and problem solving thanks to Virginia’s fast-growing FIRST Tech Challenge program.

Speaking from the student perspective, two Richmond area high school juniors have called on Virginia lawmakers to expand opportunities for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) initiatives in underserved communities.

Virginia high school FIRST Robotics teams and a longtime adult volunteer from Hanover County earned accolades at the FIRST Robotics World Championship that concluded Saturday, April 26th in St. Louis, Missouri.